Wayfair lays off 550, including 56 workers in Brunswick, Bangor

File Photo / Maureen Milliken Wayfair, one of Brunswick Landing's largest employers, has laid off 55 workers there and one in Bangor.

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By William Hall

Fifty-five employees of Wayfair Inc. in Brunswick and one in Bangor have lost their jobs as the online home furnishings retailer said Thursday it laid off 550 workers.

Wayfair (NYSE: W) has 17,000 employees worldwide, including almost 1,000 at the two locations in Maine, according to estimates.

On Thursday a spokeswoman told Mainebiz the 56 employees laid off in the state had worked on specialized teams led from the company’s Boston headquarters, and that sales and service personnel were not affected.

“We continually evaluate the needs of the business and work to increase efficiencies while aligning our teams with the initiatives that drive the greatest impact,” Susan Frechette said by email. “As part of that process, we have made some organizational changes that affect approximately 3% of our global workforce.”

The Boston Globe reported that 350 of the job cuts took place in that city, and that many of them were technology-services positions. Mainebiz was unable to obtain more detail about the ones eliminated in Brunswick and Bangor.

As revenues have increased in recent years, employment at Wayfair has also grown dramatically — its workforce totaled about 4,000 just four years ago. But since going public in October 2014, Wayfair has never had a profitable quarter.

Wayfair opened the two Maine operations centers in 2016. Plans called for about 450 customer service workers in Bangor, and about 500 in Brunswick, handling inside sales and individual customer requests. Hires in 2018 were expected to bring the Brunswick operation to 550 workers.

Wayfair today is one of the largest employers in the Brunswick Landing business park, on the former site of the Brunswick Naval Air Station. In October, Mainebiz reported that a planned addition could double the 50,000 square feet Wayfair occupies there.

The layoffs come as other retailers with a Maine presence have recently scaled down. They include L.L. Bean Inc., which is eliminating 200 jobs and plans to close its Lewiston call center, and another Brunswick business, a Sears department store that reportedly is closing in April.